A Fabric Heart

I forgot to write on the last post about how the fabric heart was made and a few people have asked about it.

So I have done a little close up to go with the description. 

The heart is made with layers of fragments of very fragile silk and lovely textured lace. It was backed with cream coloured felt to give it some strength and pieced together  with simple little running stitches, cross stitches and french knots. It has a little bit of darning at the top. Don't you love a bit of darning?  I think I'm going to do more on some other pieces.

When it was finished it didn't really blend in to the painted altered book page very well so I dry brushed it with some white gesso. I did it very gradually because I didn't want it to overwhelm the stitching or distract from the beautiful delicate vintage fabrics but I got a little surprise!...

The dry brushing blended and muted the colour really well and I loved the way it showed up the textures of the stitches and the lace.

I finished it off with a mother of pearl flower button! 

It would make a sweet little padded heart for Valentines day. I hope it will inspire you to make one of your own.